Mossad’s involvement in strangling Mabhouh (or poisoning him through a pillow, by another account) is made somewhat doubtful by reports that he had noticed weeks before his assassination that he was being shadowed. Mossad would normally abandon a non-vital operation if the target had been alerted.

Burdened with civil and political responsibilities, Hamas leaders in Gaza and the West Bank grew relatively moderate while Syrian wing of Hamas takes rejectionist line as Iran commands it.

Hamas’ Gazan leaders have to submit to Iranian whims because Iran largely finances and arms the group.

Hizbollah is expected to join the front formally next week.

Mashaal will involve Hamas in the same defense pact with Iran as Syria did.

Israel provides captured Islamists with resort-like jails, including satellite TV and pocket money.

Gaza schools are financed by UNRWA, which remains silent as the Islamist dress code is forced upon pupils.

But Hamas is not wrong. If France can ban Islamic head dress from public schools as incompatible with local culture, Hamas may require them as a sign of that very culture.

The fight called the bluff of Israeli propaganda during the Gaza war. When several high-level Muslim commanders died fighting the IDF, leftist Israeli media asserted that lower-level commanders had fled the battlefield, making it necessary for the major figures to rally their troops. We believed, on the contrary, that brave guerrilla leaders led their troops into deadly battles—unlike the IDF’s top brass, which sat in Tel Aviv bunkers. In the Jund Ansar Allah clashes, the leader of Hamas’s Izz ad Din Kassam Brigades was killed—confirming our view that Palestinian guerrilla leaders join the battles of their own free will.

Jund Ansar Allah sought to enforce Muslims values on Gazans, and proclaimed the place an Islamic emirate. Compared to them, Hamas and the Islamic Brotherhood are very moderate. At most, Hamas imposes a dress code on female lawyers, but otherwise refrains from enforcing Islamic conduct.

For now, Jund Ansar Allah and other radical Muslim groups in Gaza are rather small, but they can grow quickly if Israel continues to weaken Hamas.

Hamas is ready to return Shalit immediately—if Israel releases 1,400 terrorist murderers.
Hamas would sign a truce with Israel—but not a peace treaty.
Hamas will join the peace talks—if Israel agrees to talk with a terrorist organization.

To boot, Israel must accept all Palestinian refugees and cede Jerusalem to the Arabs.

Hamas is willing to accept a “springboard state” of Palestine within the 1948 borders—but not Israel on the other side of the border. After the Palestinian state is established, Hamas can promise to refrain from attacking Israel only for the time being – a fifteen-year truce.

Hamas’ position is honestly based on Islam, which does not tolerate non-Islamic states in this land. Neither does Judaism tolerate non-Jewish worship here.

Mashaal praised Obama’s Cairo speech for substituting the word resistance for terrorism.

By that evening he had gotten a virtual whipping from his Iranian puppeteers, and he issued a statement today renouncing everything he had said that in the interview.

In an interview with the New York Times, Mashaal superficially welcomed peace with Israel. This is peace Hamas style:

- a ten-year truce, which would allow the terrorists to entrench themselves in the West Bank before launching a new round of wars against Israel.
- dismantling all Israeli settlements, making 260,000 Jews homeless. The last time an eviction of that magnitude took place was under the Nazis.
- Palestinian annexation of Jerusalem and the Temple Mount.
- return of all refugees to Israel, so that the Jewish state would be overwhelmed with hateful, criminal Arabs.

Mashaal’s position is aligned with Iran’s and is generally more extreme than Haniye’s, but Gaza’s “moderate” Hamas leaders have little say in the policy since their lifeblood, the Iranian money, comes through Mashaal.

Fatah’s negotiator Erekat voiced similar demands to Netanyahu, who offered him the immediate resumption of peace talks.

Jews might not like it, but Hamas is indeed the only force in Palestine to talk to, and so far is scrupulously holding to the ceasefire.

Speaking to Palestinians, Hamas refuses to recognize Israel. The absence of reconciliation between Fatah and Hamas also makes a two-state solution impossible, as Gaza and the West Bank are ruled independently of each other.

More important is this line in Hamas’ statement: “for Israel… to give us our part of Jerusalem.” Hamas has signaled its acceptance of the Road Map agreements.

Bibi and Lieberman promised during their election campaigns to eliminate Hamas, but if their government stays in power for four years, we will see them recognizing Hamas and negotiating with it. In their talks with Fatah and during the Doha summit, Hamas has refused even nominal recognition of Israel.

The West faces a choice: to forget and ignore the ravaged Gaza or channel the reconstruction aid through Hamas.

We can add that the Peres-Beilin clique put no similar demands on the PLO. Arafat only recognized (oh, thank you) Israel years after the negotiations started.

The only problem with this threat is that Hamas didn’t kidnap Shalit. The operation was carried out by Dughmush clan criminals and some loose terrorists.

Mashaal confirmed a long-disputed quote by Nasrallah, who allegedly remarked that he would not have kidnapped two IDF soldiers in 2006 had he known the extent to which Israel would retaliate against Lebanon. Here an enemy has testified to the great effectiveness of Olmert’s war, which most Israelis criticize.

If the Netanyahu government had any guts left, it would jump on the opportunity to shoot them off during the trip.

In bringing charges against Bashir, the ICC set a precedent which will work against Israel. Bashir is accused, among other crimes, of forcible transfer of Darfurians. Never mind that President Wilson approved Turkey’s Greek population exchange and that President Roosevelt expelled Germans from Poland and Czechoslovakia.

Israel can facilitate the transfer of Arabs by entirely peaceful and legal means.

At Hamas talks with Fatah in Cairo, the two terrorist groups reported disagreements “over Israel,” which probably refers to Hamas’ right of resistance to the evil Zionists who supply water and electricity to Gaza’s terrorist population.

The highest estimates put the number of destroyed houses at 2,800. Most of the houses were booby-trapped, and thus unoccupied. UNRWA takes care of the Gazan homeless (and home owners, too). No less than 99 percent of the $150 million appears to have been stolen.

The same holds for mosque restoration. Since Israel blocks metal and cement delivery to Gaza (lest Hamas build bunkers), Hamas could not have spent any significant amount on construction work.

Hamas fired thousands of Fatah security forces, so the 40,000 increase is left unaccounted for. Some of it applies to Hamas’ own military wing, Izz ad Din Kassam Brigades, which shell Israel. But the main part, written of as salaries, is actually used to purchase weapons from Iran and pay for them to be smuggled into Gaza.

Palestinian wages are financed by Israeli tax transfers, and by US and EU donations.

Israel’s goodwill gesture toward Hamas came as Gazans continued shelling Israeli population centers.

- An IDF strike devastated the terrorist group’s command-and-control system.
- Consequently, only 3 percent of Hamas’ 35,000-strong militia joined the battles.
- In the absence of strong commanders and inspiration, the 500 suicide bombers failed to act.

Hamas is no doubt working now to remedy its problems by establishing autonomous fighting cells to fight IDF in the next round of confrontation if the central control fails.

Yousef reiterated Hamas’ commitment to stopping rocket fire on Israel during the truce, as indeed Hamas behaved during the six months of ceasefire. A few dozen rockets were launched by other militants, and Hamas generally acted to repress them.

Curiously, French newsmen got to Ahmed Yousef before IDF could find him.

The one person who especially hated Rayyan is Abu Mazen, as Rayyan led the Hamas takeover of Gaza a year ago.

Retaliation aside, the death of a prominent enemy is a welcome thing. However, there is a big but. Israeli media wrongly denigrate Rayyan. We can only wish Israel had many leaders like him. Rayyan was a serious Islamic scholar, popular with his students, and a respected legal authority; his home library included more than 5,000 volumes. At the same time, Rayyan was a daring military leader who both organized and personally led the revolt against corrupt Fatah thugs in Gaza. He was honest and courageous: Rayyan had personally sent his son as a suicide bomber. When hit by Israeli bombs, he was not in hiding but staying at his house.

Nizar Rayyan compares very well to the thugs who rule Israel.